Samsung’s Unpopular ChatOn Messaging Service Will Go Dark In 2015

You can't win them all, and in the ultra competitive mobile app segment, Samsung has decided its ChatON application doesn't have what it takes to win out against a plethora of more popular programs. As such, Samsung is turning off its ChatON service for good in all markets in the first quarter of 2015 so that it can instead focus on "health, mobile commerce, and other platforms."

The shutoff date has been set for February 1, 2015, so if you're a fan of ChatON, you have until then to get your fix, save for U.S. users -- Samsung will shutter the service domestically by the end of March, thus ending a three-year run.

Samsung had big plans for ChatON, announcing the app in August 2011. One thing that was supposed to work in its favor over competing apps is that it came preinstalled on Samsung devices running Android. The timing couldn't have been better, either, as Samsung was fast becoming a dominant player in the mobile space.

ChatON offers some nifty and unique features, too, such as the ability to "recall those regrettable messages." You know, like angry texts to your boss or girlfriend that you wish you never sent.

Nevertheless, ChatON just didn't catch fire among mobile users the way competing apps and protocols did. One survey even found that users were spending on average a mere six seconds on ChatON per month.